Why doesn't Safari wrap text?

walie said:

Well I do a lot of browsing on my phone during my morning and afternoon commute and its an irritating issue for me and many, many others

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Well, then I hope that for your sake and for the sake of everyone else who does extensive browsing on their iPhones that Apple does come up with a viable solution to the problem, and soon. I was simply stating that it's a non-issue for me, which was primarily directed at ihightower, who seems oddly bent out of shape that not everyone is as irate about this situation this as he/she is. If I don't have a reason to get pissed off about something, I don't get pissed off about it. End of story.

>> may be all they care about is itunes and music. <<

You are being generous... methinks the only thing they care about are the $$$ ;-)

Beverly Howard

I'm a droid user planning to switch to iphone on VZ. There are things about android that I will miss and will deal without, notifications, gmail integration, sms apps, and this feature. It's very useful and I am surprised Apple doesn't implement it. Nevertheless the safari browser is overall far smoother than android's browser. It's generally faster (from an original droid anyway) and scrolling really is a different experience. I tended to browse on my ipod touch a lot more. I'll miss it, but in the end browsing is still a far more pleasant experience on iOS.

ihightower said:

thank you exactly!!!

both the boss at apple.. as well as the others who doesn't acknowledge this to be a problem.. when they need reading glasses... they will know..

but unfortunately.. both the boss at apple and the few others all seems to be NOT readers at all with their phones.. may be all they care about is itunes and music.

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I am not going to complain for the sake of complaining. Everyone uses their phone differently. For me, I don't web browse on the phone that often. But maybe if enough people get together and email apple about it, it can get fixed. Complaining on a MB isn't going to solve it

>> notifications, gmail integration, <<

Actually, it's there and it's google... see

http://bevhoward.com/GoogleSync.htm for details.

I've been using it on both iOS and windows mobile for years and once it is set up, it's seamless. A related point, I have always avoided outlook, so, this approach bypasses it entirely by using google's contacts, calendar and tasking.

Posts by others indicate that google can sync outlook, but, why?

gmail integration is a broad topic... details?

Reason is that there have been some exchange sync "gmail push" issues with the iOS devices, but, since I don't use nor need push email, that has not been a factor for me.

Beverly Howard

EDIT:

>> But maybe if enough people get together and email apple about it, it can get fixed. <<

in my experience, posting and discussing the problems on user forums is the best way possible to learn more about the problems and find solutions and workarounds that provide timely solutions to users' needs.

I've been a professional in the mobile arena for over a decade and have never seen any major company respond to user emails in a timely fashion. At best, they respond to negative publicity that has the potential to impact sales rather than recognize and address problems that impact users. The problem _addressed_ in this thread has been there since the iphone was released and apple has chosen not to address it...

...of course, it's possible that no one told apple about the problem and the need, but there is no way to know since apple does not communicate with users of iOS devices.

Respectfully, but, sincerely,
Beverly Howard

I've had experience of the two approaches and the positives and negatives of each are below:

iPhone

+ really smooth browsing, zooming in and out is very smooth
- if you need to make the text larger, you have to scroll left and right

Android

+ no matter what size the text, it'll fit onto the screen
- text reflowing isn't as smooth as iPhone zooming, and it breaks the page formatting

don't agree..

mrochester said:

I've had experience of the two approaches and the positives and negatives of each are below:

iPhone

+ really smooth browsing, zooming in and out is very smooth
- if you need to make the text larger, you have to scroll left and right

Android

+ no matter what size the text, it'll fit onto the screen
- text reflowing isn't as smooth as iPhone zooming, and it breaks the page formatting

Click to expand...

i am heavy user of reading text on Android Browser.. normally ready about 20 pages worth of data every single day on a browser screen.. reading HTML mainly from various sites (ebooks on Computer Programming). THERE ARE NO MOBILE PAGES FOR THESE SITES.

and, I use Android 1.6 (3.2 " screen)..HTC Magic (Mytouch 3g in some countries) and the text can be zoomed nicely to whatever size I want.. and the flow is smooth in every site I visited.
Occasionally, I have to switch to Opera Browser.. when I need to see lot of Code Samples.. the stock browser.. hides some of the long pgoramming code.

Android text reading rocks!!! and so does everything else.
just like a desktop browser.

Using.. say Evo4G.. or something.. the text reading is like magic.. and with adobe flash.. nothing can be missed.. it is soo wonderful.. I don't own the device.. was just trying out on shops.

@ihightower:

One of the most beutiful things about smartphones is the variety. You have iOS, BB, Windows Phone 7, Android, etc. to choose. You are not forced to use iOS. If you dislike iOS so much you should not waste time posting on an iphone forum. You will make a much better contribution joining an Android forum. I still don't get why you are so annoyed when you don't even have an iOS device.

totally agree.. but

RebeccaL said:

@ihightower:

One of the most beutiful things about smartphones is the variety. You have iOS, BB, Windows Phone 7, Android, etc. to choose. You are not forced to use iOS. If you dislike iOS so much you should not waste time posting on an iphone forum. You will make a much better contribution joining an Android forum. I still don't get why you are so annoyed when you don't even have an iOS device.

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yes.. i do agree with you that choice is good..

But, my point again is that:

If not having 'word wrap' is really a bad idea on iOS.. then people should agree and accept that this is inferior and consider to recommend that 'word wrap' should be available by default or at least turn it on somehow through options.

But, instead... what I see here from guys like you is that.. some really crappy excuse like this..

1) oh! i don't read on an iphone.. if you want to read use a desktop
2) oh! there are mobile sites which should give a better experience. (but you should know that mobile sites are even inferior to the word wrap feature).

Guys.. listen.. 'word wrap' should be a MUST have for all browsers.. without that it will give really a hard time for users who are reading text...
and that 'word wrap' should be the standard.. regardless of you guys ((the minority NOT READING on iphone or ipad guys)) need it or not.

To understand what I mean.. try reading the following page (with pinch to zoom for bigger font) on your iphone or ipad safari: http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english2e/ch12.html

and try the same on android browser (stock and opera).

You will notice the difference.. that you will need to scroll 4 ways on iphone or ipad.. while android will give you a seamless reading experience.

Don't come back with stupid excuses on why you don't read on iphone.. but recommend to have the change to have 'word wrap'

OK My JOB is DONE HERE!!!

I may be back for more additional replies. on this topic... depending on my mood.

---- i am annoyed about how the iOS users are not annoyed by this missing superior world class feature--- so that's why i ended up on this forum happy to know someone was annoyed.. and some other ones like you just wanted to argue that 'word wrap' is not really needed.

ihightower said:

yes.. i do agree with you that choice is good..

But, my point again is that:

If not having 'word wrap' is really a bad idea on iOS.. then people should agree and accept that this is inferior and consider to recommend that 'word wrap' should be available by default or at least turn it on somehow through options.

But, instead... what I see here from guys like you is that.. some really crappy excuse like this..

1) oh! i don't read on an iphone.. if you want to read use a desktop
2) oh! there are mobile sites which should give a better experience. (but you should know that mobile sites are even inferior to the word wrap feature).

Guys.. listen.. 'word wrap' should be a MUST have for all browsers.. without that it will give really a hard time for users who are reading text...
and that 'word wrap' should be the standard.. regardless of you guys ((the minority NOT READING on iphone or ipad guys)) need it or not.

To understand what I mean.. try reading the following page (with pinch to zoom for bigger font) on your iphone or ipad safari: http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english2e/ch12.html

and try the same on android browser (stock and opera).

You will notice the difference.. that you will need to scroll 4 ways on iphone or ipad.. while android will give you a seamless reading experience.

Don't come back with stupid excuses on why you don't read on iphone.. but recommend to have the change to have 'word wrap'

OK My JOB is DONE HERE!!!

I may be back for more additional replies. on this topic... depending on my mood.

---- i am annoyed about how the iOS users are not annoyed by this missing superior world class feature--- so that's why i ended up on this forum happy to know someone was annoyed.. and some other ones like you just wanted to argue that 'word wrap' is not really needed.

Click to expand...

LOL I have not said what I think aboud word wrap and you say I am arguin it's not needed...

What I said is that if you don't use or plan to use iOS you are wasting your time in this forum. Unless your intention is trolling.

And FYI: I am not against word wrap as an option.

While I wouldn't mind the option, in general I want sites site to look as intended on my phone:
I don't like word wrap
I don't like mobile sites
I browse a lot from my phone
I don't have the readability issues OP describes

Even the worst case scenario examples given on this thread are clear and easy to read on my iPhone w/o side to side scrolling. Frankly I think the code examples provided by ihightower would be harder to read with re-flowing enabled.
As for the iPad, lets be real, if you're having trouble with side to side scrolling on that site, a regular laptop browser must also be difficult for you to use at default zoom.

PSA - In all seriousness, if you have poor vision or suffer from eye strain, there are many useful bookmarklets that will re-format a page on the fly. (i.e Instapaper Text bookmarklet)

This issue seems to be from users who are used to Android browsers. I don't see many iOS users complaining. Re-flowing sites just isn't the killer feature that this thread makes it out to be.

(there also seem to be a fair number of trolls just trying to invent an issue)

Edit - Sorry RebeccaL. I have fixed the post

err404 said:

Edit - Sorry RebeccaL. I have fixed the post

Click to expand...

No problem


As of your post, I completely agree with you. Not having word wrap is not such a huge issue, if it where people would have complained and it would have been added already.

And about the trolling. Yeah it always happens here, I remember the antennagate/dropped calls issue. People in the forums where complaining like mad and everybody said they where going to return their iphone. While in real life iPhone sales continued as normal,and Apple continued to make money. In fact the returned phones amounted to a very low 1.5% which was about the same for the other iPhone models.

andy2141 said:

That's strange as I had a completely different view of it.

I've had all the iPhones, a HTC Hero, Desire and Desire HD. On all the Android phones I actually wanted to turn this feature off, yet I couldn't find an option to do so. I really didn't like the way it formatted text at all.

Maybe I'm in the minority buy I actually prefer the way mobile Safari does it. I agree that a simple "text reflow on/off" option is the way to go though.

Click to expand...

well you can turn it off. I see it in the browser settings.

I agree with ihightower, apple showed adapt the word wrap feature into their phones. In a couple of weeks I will be switching over to the iphone (coming from the motorola droid), I am pretty sure I will find this annoying but the benefits to the iphone outweigh that "bump" in the road. Hopefully in the future though they will adapt it.

And I dont find you to be trolling, it just seems that you have ran into a lot of apple fanboys

Rodvette said:

And I dont find you to be trolling, it just seems that you have ran into a lot of apple fanboys

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Imagine that, Apple fanboys on an iPhone forum.
But let's be clear, he makes a claim about some perceived deficiency and when people disagree he attacks by calling the entire community uneducated sheep.
There may be valid points in his posts, but they are lost when his attacks begin.

Sorry, ihightower; but these character assaults on people with differing opinions are not productive. Demeaning a community based upon their preferences does make you a troll.

err404 said:

Imagine that, Apple fanboys on an iPhone forum.
But let's be clear, he makes a claim about some perceived deficiency and when people disagree he attacks by calling the entire community uneducated sheep.
There may be valid points in his posts, but they are lost when his attacks begin.

Sorry, ihightower; but these character assaults on people with differing opinions are not productive. Demeaning a community based upon their preferences does make you a troll.

Click to expand...

Well you even find Windows and Android fanboys in this forum so Apple fanboys is no surprise LOL.

i prefer it the way it is, to see the website, the way the designer intended, not all squashed up and weird.

if you zoom in, what's so hard about swiping your finger?

most of the time i just double tap on text to fit it to the width of the phone in landscape, with the iPhone 4 having 960 pixels across in landscape, and most websites being formatted to 1024 pixels across, and it being very unlikely the text actually goes the entire width of the screen, i haven't had a problem...

I don't get the fuss. I've not browsed on an Android phone, but I have no problems on my iPhone. And if it were a feature, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't use it anyway. And I'm not a clueless fanboy. I'm a web developer and have been for about 15 years. From time to time I find a site where the scrolling is annoying. But 98% of the time, it's a non-issue for me. I can read most things fine without needing to zoom in where I would need to scroll. Of course I also have an iPhone 4 with the awesome screen.

Thank you for starting this thread! I have a Sprint EVO (and an iPhone), and love the way the text wraps with zoom. I can't use my iPhone to browse anymore. My eyes are fading. I am using reading glasses these days, and still can't see most things on the iPhone. I do not think that the user should have to turn the screen -which doesn't help either. Why was such a simple thing was omitted.

The reality is that the iPhone sits most days untouched on my desk. Thankfully, most of the apps I use are ported over to Android or have nice alternatives. My music is all loaded, and movies too, so I really see my self dumping my iphone in a year when the contract is up.

Other people may not feel as I do, but if I can't use it for the thing I do the most basic things, like reading the screen, what good is it? My EVO is working quite nicely, no headaches with browsing. I can even take off my reading glasses and zoom to my heart's content. A lifesaver when I can't find my glasses! The iPhone is a huge disappointment to my household. We all have iMacs (and iPhones) and really believed that Apple would be making something so amazingly innovative that we would have our socks knocked off. We never expected the iPhone to lack such basic things.

Over all, I believe the average iPhone customer has very minor needs. Also, that user base is probably very young with good eyes -and they most certainly don't need a task application! haha. My husband I speculate that is why the device is doing so well in spite of basic features missing (that I might add that have been around for a very long time on other platforms).

ihightower said:

To understand what I mean.. try reading the following page (with pinch to zoom for bigger font) on your iphone or ipad safari: http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english2e/ch12.html

and try the same on android browser (stock and opera).

You will notice the difference.. that you will need to scroll 4 ways on iphone or ipad.. while android will give you a seamless reading experience.

Click to expand...

I may be in the minority but I just loaded that on my 3G in landscape and it was 100% readable without changing a thing.

Also, curious why you are needing to zoom in on an iPad?

EDIT: Just tried it in portrait and a slight pinch and it fit perfectly while being quite readable.

Not a completely ideal solution but some of the browsers in the app store (I use Atomic) have adjustable font size. If you increase the text size it reflows the text to fit the same sized screen. I have atomic set so a two finger swipe increases the font size so its pretty easy to do

I think now the iphone hardware is much faster, text reflow could be performed quite seamlessly. Perhaps it was left out originally as it would have been slow on the original hardware. It would be nice if it was an option

To the poster above. Not everyone has perfect eyesight. Personally I find the font on even iphone optimised web pages is often too small for me and I have to zoom in. Its all about accessibility for all

Well, I went to sites mentioned and everything was readable to me without zooming in. And that is in portrait mode.

Personally, I prefer it not reformatting, I like seeing the websites how theyre supposed to be shown, and I hate when I get the mobile versions. However I definitely wouldn't mind the option.

>> (I use Atomic) <<

Thanks for that reference... will give that a try.

In the mean time, I will point to Instapaper again. At this point, about 90% of my iOS browsing is done using Instapaper Pro.

Took about a week to get used to collecting sites that I would like to read when mobile, but, the "Pro" version has a relatively "smart" approach to making conversions on the device when mobile... open a site and when you find text that is not easily readable in mobile safari, copy the url and switch to Instapaper... with a url in the clipboard, Instapaper will offer to convert the page to a readable format.

An additional note... I've become addicted to Instapaper's "tilt scrolling" and wonder why it's not an option in every text reading app.

Beverly Howard

Addendum

Instapaper has added an email address option to help read long html formatted emails... login to the instapaper site, then click "extras" and copy your account's email processing address and add it to your contacts.

After that, simply forward long html emails to that address and they are available in instapaper in a few seconds.

Atomic web seems to handle text fairly well. My use of instapaper has pretty much eliminated iOS browser use but from what it have seen, Atomic will completely replace mobile safari.

A huge bonus is Atomic's ability to change the user agent for those sites that become completely inaccessible via mobile safari.

Hope that this information is of value.
Beverly Howard

Just thought I'd throw in my two cents.

I'd absolutely hate if word wrapping was introduced to mobile safari (I'd accept it as an option thats off by default but thats aside the point). I consider websites no different from any other form of art/design and I'd like to view it as intended. When I watch a movie I'd rather watch with black bars than have the image stretched and distorted to fit the entire screen. This situation isn't very different: there is no magic word wrapping algorithm that can work universally in all sites without being able to mess up/distort the design. It's definitely something to consider.

Adam